Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Buys Shares of 27,300 Voya Financial, Inc. $VOYA

Key Points

• Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought 27,300 shares of Voya Financial in the first quarter, valued at about $1.87 million.
• Voya Financial recently beat earnings expectations, reporting $2.26 EPS versus the $2.02 consensus, though quarterly revenue came in slightly below estimates at $1.93 billion.
• Wall Street sentiment is broadly positive, with an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $91.73, while the stock also offers a quarterly dividend of $0.47 per share.

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in shares of Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VOYA - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 27,300 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $1,865,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in VOYA. Verdad Advisers LP purchased a new stake in Voya Financial in the 4th quarter worth about $148,980,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in Voya Financial during the fourth quarter worth about $83,106,000. Millennium Management LLC boosted its position in Voya Financial by 135.7% during the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,084,747 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $81,139,000 after purchasing an additional 624,436 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its stake in shares of Voya Financial by 63.0% in the third quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 1,431,835 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $107,101,000 after purchasing an additional 553,675 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Voya Financial by 11.6% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,262,031 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $318,800,000 after purchasing an additional 444,059 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.10% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on VOYA. TD Cowen initiated coverage on shares of Voya Financial in a research note on Monday, April 20th. They set a "buy" rating and a $100.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Voya Financial from $84.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Voya Financial from $72.00 to $70.00 and set an "underperform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Voya Financial from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Voya Financial from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Voya Financial has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $91.73.

Voya Financial Price Performance

Shares of NYSE VOYA opened at $90.65 on Wednesday. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $84.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $76.70. Voya Financial, Inc. has a twelve month low of $64.50 and a twelve month high of $93.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.69, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

Voya Financial (NYSE:VOYA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The asset manager reported $2.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.24. Voya Financial had a return on equity of 13.84% and a net margin of 8.24%.The firm had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.98 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.00 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Voya Financial, Inc. will post 9.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Voya Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 26th were given a dividend of $0.47 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 26th. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. Voya Financial's payout ratio is presently 28.40%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Voya Financial news, insider Trevor Ogle sold 3,994 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total value of $359,460.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 2,887 shares of the company's stock, valued at $259,830. The trade was a 58.04% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 1.57% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Voya Financial

Voya Financial, Inc NYSE: VOYA is a financial services company headquartered in New York City, focused on helping Americans plan, invest and protect their savings. The company traces its roots to the U.S. operations of ING Group, which were spun off in 2013 and rebranded as Voya Financial in 2014. Voya's operations are built around a customer-centric approach, drawing on decades of experience in retirement planning and risk management to serve both individual and institutional clients.

Voya's core business activities span three key segments: Retirement, Investment Management and Employee Benefits.

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